Nothing is Blue by Biman Nath is an interesting novel located in the 7th century, the right mixture of history and fiction. The plot plays out during the stay of Xuanzang in Nalanda, under the invitation and patronage of King Harsha.
The narration is largely reminiscences of Xuanzang, after he reached China back. He witnesses many disturbing developments in Nalanda, of Buddhist monks taking to tantric rituals and going out of the order.
Fast paced and easy to read, Nothing is Blue, discusses Hindu (read Brahminical) opposition to Buddhism, the emotions of a young bhikshu, Ananda, the main person of the plot. Ananda is appointed to accompany and serve Xuanzang, and over the years they become close. When Xuanzang wishes to undertake a journey to Simhala, (Sri Lanka) Ananda is directed to accompany him. However the journey ends at Kancheevaram. Ananda is a pursuer of mathematics and wishes to learn more on the subject of astronomy.
In Nalanda is another teacher, who studies the stars and asks Ananda to go to Ujjain to learn under Brahmin teacher astronomy and calculations of star movement. Here Ananda stumbles upon a discredited manuscript on astronomy, written by a woman, whose tongue had been cut off because she dared to display more knowledge than her learned father in law.
He comes back to Nalanda and continues to decipher the manuscript. Kaushala, Ananda’s roommate in Nalanda, along with a few senior monks takes to practicing tantric rituals for nirvana. Though Ananda is aware of it, he keeps quiet. When he returns to Nalanda, he comes to know that Kaushala and his friends had left the monastery for Kamrup, the place for rituals. The plot continues.
Interwoven in this plot are minor roles of two women – one a hapless widow suffering at her in-laws, who finally commits suicide before Ananda could reach any help to her and another a courtesan whose house Ananda visits to get the manuscript.
‘Nothing’ in the title is about ‘zero’, the nothingness, which is represented by the wide sky and open horizon.
The chilling nightmare of Xuanzang about the destruction of Nalanda, as recorded in his travelogue is well situated in the novel. Barely a few years after he left Nalanda, the invasion from the west of India razed the great centre of learning to ground.
Much like the Holy Grail in The Da Vinci Code, there is this manuscript on the zodiac movements, the one that Ananda was pursuing, which proves rather elusive. While crossing the river, from among all the books collected by Xuanzang this alone is washed away.
Altogether a good read. The author, an astrophysicist who studied and worked abroad is settled in Bengaluru now.
(HarperCollins Publishers India, A-53, Sector 57, Noida (UP) 201301)
